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the fridge has stopped working?

my ff200 lg hotpoint fridge has stoppped working. The bottom section ie the freezer compartment works fine and the light comes on when you open the fridge but there is no coolness there anymore. Anyone got any ideas?
tony, May 2012
Much easier to empty freezer. Turn power off at wall and leave freezer door open. Do this in the evening and leave over night for at least 12 hours to allow ice to melt. Then power back up.

Lincoln Appliance NZ, May 2012
thanks for the reply steve. I put a hairdryer onto the bottom for 10 minutes but didnt remove the back panel. Now there is some coolness there this morning but i fear it will freeze up again. Anyway thanks again for the detailed response.

tony, May 2012
thanks for the reply steve. I put a hairdryer onto the bottom for 10 minutes but didnt remove the back panel. Now there is some coolness there this morning but i fear it will freeze up again. Anyway thanks again for the detailed response.

tony, May 2012
This is a common problem with this model due to it being a non frost version

Simply moisture inside the fridge/freezer needs to escape by way of a drain-hole at the back/bottom of the fridge (inside the freezer compartment), this water is then directed to the top of the condenser to evaporate. After time this 'hole' gets blocked, the water remains inside the freezer compartment, builds up and blocks the flow of air to the fridge

The big give-away for this is the bottom freezer draw is jammed (by the ice)

This easy to resolve, an engineer would only do the same (I did this recently) approx 4 hours and working again

Power off fridge/freezer from mains, remove content from freezer (as this is where all the works is done)

Remove freezer draws, bottom draw will/may be jammed

Use a hairdryer or whatever to free up the bottom drawer and ice build up

Using a Philips screwdriver, remove the back panel, whilst unplugging the connector block behind panel, do not force off due to ice holding as it will snap, ease off with hair-drier and gentle tugging

You will now see a sheet load of ice, that's why the fridge isn't cooling

Simple defrost ice with hair-drier

With a thin piece of wire or whatever, unplug the drain hole in an attempt to stop this again, albeit I've had to repeat the above 3 times now in 3 years

Good luck

Below is picture with back panel removed



http://stevemorgan.co.uk/linkfiles/fridge.jpg

Steve Morgan, May 2012
link Click here to see other fixes for Hotpoint.